ELLESMERE Port's Labour MP Andrew Miller has hit back at rumours that plans to cut spending on defence could see the Cheshire Regiment disbanded.

Following the publication of comments attributed to Stephen O'Brien, the Conservative MP for Eddisbury, in some local and national newspapers, Mr Miller says he has taken up the matter with the minister for armed forces John Reid MP.

But Mr O'Brien today claimed that the threat to the Cheshire Regiment has not gone away and he was right to put the unit and the public on alert to the threat posed to the battalion's future.

Mr Miller said: 'Some of the stories that have appeared in the press recently have been both inaccurate and unsettling for those who would be affected.

'I am pleased to assure everyone that, as the Prime Minister said in the House of Commons on May 2, these allegations are not true.

'There are no plans or proposals to cut any armoured or infantry regiments. The Government remains totally committed to the Strategic Defence Review and to achieving full manning in the Army by 2005.

'This was demonstrated in July last year, when the Government announced the first sustained increase in real terms in the defence budget for over a decade.'

He added: 'The bottom line is that this is entire fiction invented by Stephen O'Brien. His actions are an insult to the Cheshire Regiment.'

But Stephen O'Brien says the issue of defence cuts and where the axe will fall still remains unresolved and points out that Gordon Brown has decided to bypass the defence secretary and is talking directly to service chiefs.

He said: 'I make no apology for the fact I have made the public and our local infantry unit aware of the threats these cuts could pose to the future of the Cheshire Regiment.

'They have a right to be told the truth that this Labour Government is planning substantial cuts in the current defence budget.

'The problem is we are dealing with a cowardly Government that prefers to make deals behind closed doors about which regiments will go and which ones will not.

'Fortunately the Cheshire Regiment was spared in the last round of defence cuts but many others were not and the microscope is now likely to focus on those regiments which were spared last time.'